Forte Oil Plc has reiterated its commitment to expand the 414megawatts Geregu Power Plant to 600MW in the short to medium term.
The company, in a statement signed on
Wednesday by the Head, Brand and Corporate Communications, Mr. Odion
Aleobua, confirmed that it had taken full operational control of the
power plant since it was handed over to it by the Federal Government on
Friday, November 1, 2013.
Forte Oil Plc said it acquired Geregu
Power as part of its diversification from primary business of petroleum
products marketing.
It said it planned to carve a niche for
itself in power generation by increasing the current capacity of the
plant to over 600MW in the short to medium term.
The optimisation, according to Forte Oil,
will be a demonstration of the company’s commitment to bridge the
current power deficit in Nigeria and help to actualise Nigerians’
expectations from the power sector.
Ahead of the operation of the plant,
Forte Oil said it had to build a partnership with competent entities in
the global power sector, adding that it had entered a technical
partnership arrangement with the Shanghai Municipal Electric Power
Company, the world’s largest power company.
Located in Kogi State, the Geregu Power Plant is backed by business mogul, Femi Otedola.
Forte Oil, through its subsidiary
Amperion Power, completed the acquisition of the power plant ahead of
the August 21, 2013 deadline with the payment of $99m to the Bureau of
Public Enterprises representing 75 per cent balance for the power
generation asset.
This was in addition to the $33m
mandatory down payment made on February 21, 2013 to the BPE by the group
to complete the required bid sum of $132m.
The Geregu Power Plant was inaugurated in
2007 with three Siemens’ open cycle gas turbine power generation units
totalling 414MW of installed capacity.
The three operational units have a rated
capacity of 138MW each, and are fuelled with gas from two pipelines from
a Natural Gas Treatment Plant. These are able to satisfy the fuel
requirements of three units running on a full load of 414MW.
PUNCH
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